The HIV Awareness Programme for Peers and Youth (HAPPY) continues to educate young people, from teenagers in secondary schools to college students, on essential topics such as HIV basics, teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment and sexually transmitted infections, said Brunei Darussalam AIDS Council President Iswandy Ahmad.
He said this in a message for World AIDS Day 2024, adding that since the programme’s inception in 2007, it has reached over 15,000 young individuals in Brunei.
World AIDS Day brings together people from around the world to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate international solidarity in the face of the pandemic. Similarly, Brunei Darussalam has done so, not left behind in walking the same path hand in hand with others in facing this decades-old issue.
Iswandy highlighted the significance of this year’s theme, ‘Take the Rights Path’, which focuses on empowering communities and protecting human rights to eliminate AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
World AIDS Day serves as a platform to raise awareness, promote prevention and treatment, and honour those who have lost their lives to the disease. In Brunei, the BDAIDSCouncil collaborates with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education to expand outreach efforts, including the HAPPY programme and the Life Skills Training (LESTARI) Programme, which has equipped 900 participants with resilience and life skills since 2008.
Iswandy urged individuals to know their HIV status through confidential testing available at government and private health facilities, including options for self-testing kits. While preventive measures like abstinence, faithfulness and consistent condom use remain critical, the council is working to make pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) drugs accessible in Brunei.
With education, acceptance and care, barriers of stigma can be broken down to work towards AIDS prevention, said Iswandy. – James Kon
